From: mapleson@cee.hw.ac.uk (Ian CR Mapleson)
Subject: Re: HUMAN-FACTORS: Long term immersion in VR
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 96 12:13 BST



> The bizarre aspect of this is I think most people in the HMD
> research/development area would agree that we should have some
> appraisal of the effects of different HMD designs on 6-16 year olds.
> But who's going to give ethical approval for pilot testing on this age
> group?  My other research field is developmental psychology and
> getting permission to do ANYTHING with children is hard enough, never
> mind something that "might" have a negate effect.

Why not take advantage of the unavoidable surge of HMD use in
youngsters that will occur with the release of the new consoles? (N64
& M2)

*Thousands* of kids are going to buy HMDs for their N64/M2 (with a
market of 40 million+, I think a figure of thousands is actually a big
underestimate), so why not somehow observe what happens to these kids
as they play their games and the months go by? An international lab
for free.

Hmmm... perhaps one could talk to schools as a way of liasing with the
kids and talking to them? (questionnaires, tests, etc.)

Just a thought...

Ian.

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